Colts split with Grizzlies

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

Despite yet another rain delay, the Laramie Colts came out with a little fire before splitting a Mountain Collegiate Baseball League doubleheader with the Cheyenne Grizzlies Monday at Cowboy Field.

The first game was delayed for 105 minutes, but the Colts would come out fired up nonetheless and win the first game 10-1, before losing a tough second game in eight innings 5-4.

Laramie, 15-16, fails once again to get over .500 and remains in third place in the MCBL standings behind Cheyenne, 12-11. The 16 losses for the Colts are more than they had all of last season.

After coming off of a tough 4-3 loss in 10 innings to the Fort Collins Foxes on the road Sunday, the Colts came out strong against the Grizzlies.

Laramie third baseman Eric DeJong's two-run home run put the Colts up 3-0 in the first inning and the Colts would get single runs in the next two innings on a RBI single by shortstop Tyler Park in the second and a RBI single by centerfielder Lee Orr in the third. It was the newcomer Orr's first hit as a Colt.

“We’re hitting a lot more balls harder,” DeJong said. “We’re seeing balls and our approaches are better at the plate. We just got to keep going, we can’t slow down now.”

The Colts would increase their lead to 8-0 in the fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run single by right fielder Kolt Browder .

The Grizzlies would get on the board in the top of the sixth with one run, but the Colts answered with a RBI double by Jesse Tierney and a run-scoring triple by first baseman Casey Martin.

Laramie had 13 hits in the first game.

Kyle Roliard got the win, scattering six hits and striking out three.

“We just got on them,” Colts manager Ryan Goodwin said. “I’ve noticed that a lot with the teams in this league if you put up a big inning early, then this year a lot of teams have been folding.”

After Cheyenne scored the first run of the second game, Laramie came back with two runs in the bottom of the third. Despite two nice defensive plays by Laramie second baseman Lucas Calderon and pitcher Alex Alemann, the Grizzlies regained a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning.

Laramie would take their first lead in the bottom of the third inning, when designated hitter Roliard hit an RBI sacrifice fly to left field that sent left fielder Olla home to make the score 2-1 for the Colts.

Laramie regained the lead again with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Cheyenne tide the game at 4-4 off of closer Marco Mejia in the seventh.

The Grizzlies then won the game off of Ryan Forrest in the eighth on a single, error and then a wild pitch.

The Colts had just four hits in the second game.

“That was a good fun baseball game right there,” Goodwin said. “It’s kind of a playoff style in game two. I kind of felt like it was something where ‘who is going to make the critical mistake,’ and unfortunately Ryan (Forrest) hung on that change up (pitch) a tad bit too long and we just weren’t able to answer.”

“I felt we played hard all night,” DeJong added. “We caught breaks and they (Cheyenne) caught breaks, but the thing is we got to do whatever we can toward the end of these games to really close the deal. We need to start winning these doubleheaders in order to be in better shape as far as the standings.”

The Colts did not gain any ground in the MCBL standings, but they are confident that they can still repeat as MCBL regular-season champions.

“Baseball is a game about whoever is clicking at the end,” DeJong said. “We’re playing hard right now and I’m confident we’ll finish off strong. Everyone in this league is close, but it’s toward the end of the season for whoever is playing the best baseball.”

“We got Greeley coming up three times later this week and we’re going to throw everything we got at them,” added Goodwin. “We know that’s the team we got to catch. If we take care of business against them, then there is no reason that we can’t come back and win this whole thing.”

The Colts will be in action again Wednesday against the Fort Collins Foxes, beginning at 6:15 p.m., in Fort Collins, Colo.

On a side note, a controversial decision was made Monday by the MCBL, which cut the 48-game regular season down to 42, due to all of the rain outs. Goodwin is very disappointed by the decision.

“I’m not very happy about it because we’re the one team that got stuck where everyone kept rescheduling us when our pitching was down and they (Cheyenne, Greeley and Fort Collins) took advantage of it,” Goodwin said. “The fact is we went out and scheduled our games and we went and played, meanwhile everyone else was playing exhibition games, and now all of a sudden,‘oh, we can’t make up all our games.’

“It’s kind of frustrating on my end because we promised these guys and their coaches 48 games when we go to recruit them. Next year, when they go back and tell their coaches, ‘hey, here is what happened out there,’ if I’m a coach at a college, I don’t want to send a guy back to a league that’s going to pull shenanigans like that personally, but unfortunately, the three other clubs don’t see it that way.”